Spoelman Christmas

The whirlwind of Christmastime events started on the 20th with a service at our church - my dad came and played guitar & sang with Kyle for the service, so that was really cool.  Maguire played "drums" on the steps during the worship.  It was too funny! 

That afternoon, my mom, Ashlyn and I went to my sister-in-law Brittany's parents' house for the annual women cookie decorating and exchange party.  I love spending time with this group of women and I'm so glad my brother married into her family :)  I'll have to see if my mom took any pics of our time there.  After the cookie madness, we went back to our house and met up with the menfolk for our traditional dinner and gift extravaganza at our house.  After a yummy salmon dinner (also somewhat of a tradition) which Maguire truly wolfed down, we dove right into the gifts.  It's so fun to watch the kids get so excited about their gifts.  And I do have to say that Ashlyn is the best gift receiver I've ever met.  After each gift she would exclaim, "Thank you SO much!  It's JUST what I wanted!  I love it!"  I know, it sounds like it would start to sound disingenuous after a while, but it's really genuine and very endearing :)  And she's "teaching" Maguire to respond similarly to gifts, only he says that it's just what he "needed".  Cute kids!  Maguire's gifts had several themes:  Music (drums/guitars), John Deere and HotWheels.  Ashlyn enjoyed things from her detailed Christmas list:  binoculars (??), a password protected journal (this came from "Santa"), Barbie in the Three Musketeers DVD and doll, and things for Angel (her Bitty Baby) such as clothes, accessories, matching "Mommy/Baby" outfits, and a reservation for lunch at American Girl Place in Chicago a few days later.  Kyle and I enjoyed the generosity of my family as well with a couple small gifts, a Flip video camera (so fun--I highly recommend!) and spending money for our Chicago trip.  But so much more than the gifts, we were grateful for the time spent with my parents, my brother and sister-in-law and their new little guy Oliver.  We love them!

 

We also played up the Santa angle this year.  I have to admit, I *may* have used Santa/naughty/nice a few times with the kids to get them to behave...don't judge!  The really fun part, though, was that the kids decorated cookies for Santa and left them out with milk on Christmas Eve.  The next morning they were delighted to find the cookies and milk gone, and a note from Santa in its place.  Then they enjoyed a few gifts each from Santa--things that had been on their lists.  It was so fun to see their excitement!